Fortuna Files: A wild Week 1 lays the blueprint for a season like no other

The SEC went just 2-3 in nonconference games vs. power conference opponents. (Thanks for the help, Vanderbilt!) New coordinator hires are already making a difference. And what's the deal with Clemson?

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Sixteen thoughts as I start my 16th season covering this wonderful sport:

1. USC’s win over LSU is as good as it gets given the circumstances. All the talk coming in was about the Trojans’ brutal nonconference schedule — start with LSU, close with Notre Dame — sandwiching an entirely new conference schedule in the Big Ten. But it’s worth noting that the league slate is relatively tame for USC, which travels to Michigan in three weeks and hosts Penn State next month but will likely be favored in its seven other Big Ten games. Winning a prove-it game with a new QB and a revamped defense should do wonders for the confidence of this program moving forward.

2. LSU coach Brian Kelly often said that winning is hard, because it is. His Notre Dame successor Marcus Freeman has built his recruiting pitch on choosing hard, and never was that more evident than in the way his Irish beat Texas A&M on Saturday night. Forget, for a second, the significance of upsetting an SEC team on the road, and what that means as we forecast the Playoff picture this early. Think about the maturity this program had to have to not panic and to not play outside of itself despite 107,000-plus fans screaming at them from start to finish.

3. Freeman spoke afterward about recruiting to Notre Dame’s “culture,” a word so important yet so overused in college athletics that it has become tough to define. But you know it when you see it, and having newcomers like Riley Leonard and Beaux Collins deliver in clutch moments the way that they did — on a night when nothing seemed to be working for them offensively — was crucial. So, too, was realizing that “zero” was OK on some plays, as Leonard avoiding taking the kind of risks that in environments like College Station usually lead to bad things happening.

4. I focus on that win because I wonder how much that kind of connectivity is going to matter in the championship race, in what will be the longest college football season ever. A team could play upward of 17 games this season. Two teams will play on Jan. 20. How hard will it be to keep a group of 85-plus guys focused and determined for that long? Look at the calendar as is. There will be coaching changes and portal movement happening all throughout the Playoff. Backups on Playoff teams — who by definition are very good players — will undoubtedly be in-demand elsewhere. Is a program’s culture strong enough to sustain those kinds of distractions?

5. Talent wins out, of course, and Georgia and Ohio State look a cut above the rest when it comes to talent. (Though there is no mistaking the upgrade Freeman has made at Notre Dame in that department after Saturday night.) But I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some really talented teams fizzle out sooner than expected this season, which would leave room deep in the Playoff for some under-the-radar teams.